The controversy surrounding Britain's Prince Andrew and his friendship with multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has deepened.

The controversy surrounding Britain's Prince Andrew and his friendship with multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has deepened.

In a public statement last week, Britain’s Prince Andrew acknowledged his longstanding friendship with now-deceased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but claimed in the statement that “at no stage” of their relationship was he aware of Epstein’s “behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction,” as quoted by The Washington Post.

But the statement was met with skepticism, to say the least, with one expert on the British Royal Family, author Angela Levin, blasting the statement as “staggeringly arrogant, disingenuous and dishonest,” according to The Sun.

Since the statement, the questions swirling around the prince’s relationship to Epstein have only grown more intense, and on Thursday, they deepened even further with the introduction of another well-known figure into the Andrew-Epstein nexus — President Donald Trump. As Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper revealed, a newly resurfaced photo shows the prince at a party in the year 2000 with Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss — who married the future president five years later.

Also appearing in the photo are Epstein, who is seen lurking in the background, and Ghislaine Maxwell. Although Maxwell has been described as Epstein’s “girlfriend,” a New York Times report alleged that she served as Epstein’s collaborator in his sex trafficking operation, even violently abusing young women herself.

While the photo, according to the Mirror, is believed to be the first publicly revealed image of Prince Andrew, Epstein, Maxwell, and Trump together in one location, another photo showing the Duke of York with Trump and Trump’s then-future wife has been circulating for years, though it has only received widespread attention this week. Daily Beast reporter Harry Siegel posted the photo on Twitter, with excerpts from an accompanying newspaper article saying that the Mar-a-Lago party was also attended by Epstein, Maxwell, and singer Michael Bolton.

2000: "A reunion of sorts a Mar-a-Lago, where Donald Trump had a familiar face—and body—by his side. That's right, girlfriend Melania Knauss, who took a temporary back seat to politics." Also there: Prince Andrew, and "Ghislaine and Jeffrey Epstein with Michael Bolton" pic.twitter.com/lnK7lp7y3G

The photos were snapped on February 12, 2000, at a celebrity tennis tournament held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, according to Britain’s Daily Mail.

So far, the prince has categorically denied engaging in any improper sexual conduct, and also denies that he was even aware of Epstein’s illegal sex trafficking operation and sexual relations with young and even underage women and girls. However, one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that she was forced to engage in sex with Andrew on three occasions, including once during an “orgy” at Epstein’s home, according to a separate Daily Mail report.

While the 2000 photos were taken five years before Epstein’s arrest on charges of recruiting underage girls to serve as prostitutes and to be raped by Epstein himself, as The Inquisitr reported, a video taken in 2010 recently emerged showing the prince inside the doorway of Epstein’s New York mansion. This video was shot years after the details of Epstein’s alleged sex crimes became public.